What does it mean to partner with a shelter company in Mexico?
Home to more than 21 million people, the Mexico City metropolitan area is the largest metropolitan region in North America by population and one of the six largest globally. According to World Population Review, the metro area’s population is estimated at 23,016,800 in 2026.
The city added approximately 264,400 residents in the last year alone, representing a 1.16% annual increase. This scale supports one of the largest urban economies in the Americas, with a deep labor market and a dense concentration of institutions.
A Large, Working-Age Talent Base
Mexico City combines scale with a demographically competitive workforce. Based on INEGI’s latest available data (2020) and observed aging trends across Mexico City and the surrounding metropolitan municipalities, the median age of the metropolitan area is estimated at approximately 34–35 years in 2025, reflecting a workforce that is maturing while remaining demographically competitive.
Median age comparison (directional):
- United States: Mexico City’s median age is approximately four years younger.
- Canada: Mexico City’s median age is approximately five years younger.
Educational Attainment: Workforce Structure and Scale
Mexico City metro area combines broad workforce coverage with a substantial base of higher education attainment. According to census-based data, the population aged 15 years and over is distributed across basic, secondary, and higher education levels, supporting a wide range of operational and professional roles.
- Middle School: 26.9% (approximately 4.48 million people)
- High School or General Baccalaureate: 25.6% (approximately 4.26 million people)
- Bachelor’s Degree: 21.5% (approximately 3.59 million people)
At higher levels of specialization, the population also includes graduates with master’s degrees (2.1%), technical education (2.6%), and doctoral degrees (0.4%), providing advanced skills for management, finance, research, and technology-related functions.
Labor Market Conditions
According to INEGI’s most recent city-level data, the economically active population (labor force participation rate) in Mexico City (city-level, not metropolitan) reached 63.2% in the first quarter of 2025, making it the most up-to-date indicator of workforce engagement in the city.
During the same period, Mexico City’s unemployment rate (city-level, not metropolitan) stood at 3.43%, equivalent to approximately 174,000 people, and declined by 0.56 percentage points compared to the previous quarter. According to information gathered from the Congress of Mexico City , Mexico City also consolidated its position as the entity with the highest level of formal employment in the country, with more than 4 million workers affiliated with the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS).
Over the past year, labor informality declined by approximately 1.8 percentage points, reinforcing evidence of strong labor absorption and sustained demand for workers across services, corporate functions, logistics, and industry.
Customer Support and Call Center Talent Pool
In the specific category of workers who provide information by phone (call center) and announcers, Mexico City recorded approximately 27,000 workers in 1Q 2025, the highest concentration nationwide. It is important to note that this figure reflects formal, registered occupational roles under a specific statistical definition.
- Reception and Information Services
- Telephone operators
- Travel services
- Supervisors of Workers Who Provide and Manage Information
When these categories are considered together at the national level, the effective customer support talent pool reaches a conservative estimate of more than 400,000 workers (1Q 2025). This figure reflects overlapping occupational categories identified by Data México and does not capture the full breadth of the BPO industry, which includes a large number of workers performing call center functions under sales, IT support, and broader customer service roles. As a result, the true size of the BPO and contact center workforce is likely materially higher.
Accounting and Finance Talent Pool
Metro Area:
- Mexico City: 92,200 professionals
- State of Mexico: 96,600 professionals
Talent Pipeline: Business and Accounting Graduates
Mexico City’s accounting and finance talent pool is supported by a steady pipeline of new graduates. During the 2024–2025 academic year, Mexico City and the State of Mexico together recorded 13,744 higher-education graduates in business and accounting–related fields, covering technical programs, bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, and doctoral programs.
Women represented 54.5% of total graduates (7,487), while men accounted for 45.5% (6,257), highlighting a strong female presence in the region’s business and accounting talent pipeline.
IT and Technology Talent Pool
Mexico City is the largest and most dynamic technology talent market in Latin America. According to CBRE’s annual Scoring Tech Talent report, Mexico City ranks first among Latin American tech markets in overall scale and employment growth, positioning it as a leading destination for technology-driven operations and digital services.
As of 2024, Mexico City concentrated approximately 320,000 technology professionals, the largest tech workforce in the region. Over the past five years, tech employment in the city has grown by 95%, marking the second-fastest growth rate among the major Latin American tech hubs analyzed by CBRE.
Mexico City also leads the region in technology graduate output, producing 24,346 tech-related graduates in 2024, more than any other Latin American market included in the study. This strong pipeline supports sustained expansion across software development, IT services, engineering, and digital operations.
Office Real Estate Market: Capacity to Support Corporate Operations
Mexico City’s office market is recovering and showing clear signs of renewed demand. By the end of 1H 2025, companies occupied 160,000 square meters of additional office space, more than double the level recorded a year earlier, according to CBRE Mexico.
Office availability has tightened to its lowest point in five years. Across the city, the vacancy rate fell to 18.4%, while in the main business districts—such as Reforma, Polanco, and Lomas Palmas—vacancy dropped to 12.1%, reflecting stronger demand in central and well-connected areas.
Most new office take-up came from companies renewing leases or expanding existing operations, rather than new market entrants. These moves were concentrated in established business corridors, indicating that firms already operating in Mexico City are choosing to stay, grow, and consolidate their presence.
Mexico City currently offers a large and modern office base, with approximately 7.4 million square meters of Class A and A+ space. New construction remains limited and disciplined, ensuring availability without oversupply.
Presence of International Companies
Mexico City hosts a large concentration of multinational companies across technology, finance, consumer goods, consulting, manufacturing, and telecommunications. This corporate presence expands career options, supports professional mobility, and is a key reason why talent chooses to remain in the city.
Selected international companies with operations in Mexico City include:
- Microsoft
- Cisco
- Intel
- MongoDB
- Qualtrics
- Lyft
- American Express
- Scotiabank
- BBVA
- Santander México
- Nestlé
- Procter & Gamble
- PepsiCo
- Mondelēz International
- Honeywell
- General Motors
- Ford Motor Company
- AT&T México
- Virgin Mobile
- Lumen Technologies
This concentration of global employers creates a dense labor market with continuous demand for skilled professionals, reinforcing Mexico City’s role as a long-term destination for talent.
Foreign Direct Investment Concentration (Mexico City)
Mexico City is the primary destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in Mexico.
According to official data from Mexico’s National Registry of Foreign Investment (RNIE), Mexico City and the State of Mexico together—which form the core of the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (Valley of Mexico)—accounted for the majority of foreign direct investment in the country during the third quarter of 2025.
- Mexico City: US$22.8 billion in FDI (55.8% of the national total), representing a 45% year-over-year increase.
- State of Mexico: US$3.2 billion in FDI (7.7% share), closely linked to the metropolitan economy through logistics, industrial parks, and suburban corporate activity.
Taken together, the core metropolitan region captured over 63% of total FDI.
Main Countries of Origin of Foreign Direct Investment
- United States: US$16.1 billion (approximately 39.5% of total FDI)
- Spain: US$5.8 billion (approximately 14.1%)
- Japan: US$2.9 billion (approximately 7.1%)
Netherlands: US$2.6 billion (approximately 6.3%) - Canada: US$2.3 billion (approximately 5.6%)
Note on interpretation: This country-level breakdown reflects national FDI flows, not investment exclusively located within the Mexico City metropolitan area. However, given that Mexico City and the State of Mexico together account for the majority of total FDI, a significant share of these investments is managed, coordinated, or supported through operational teams based in the Mexico City metropolitan area.
Recent Foreign Investments Supporting Mexico City
- Microsoft (2024): US$1.3B investment in cloud and AI infrastructure. While locations are not fully specified, Microsoft coordinates key commercial, enterprise, and partner operations from Mexico City.
- Amazon (AWS & Logistics, 2024–2025): ~US$5B cloud region investment combined with the expansion of Amazon’s logistics network in Mexico City. The company has opened new logistics facilities in the metropolitan area, supporting same-day delivery, thousands of jobs, and the coordination of e‑commerce operations nationwide from Mexico City.
- L’Oréal (2025–2026): US$80 million investment to expand production capacity in Mexico, including facilities in Mexico City and San Luis Potosí.
- Echo Global Logistics (2025): US$9.9 million investment to open a new operations center in Mexico City.
Time Zone Alignment with the United States and Canada
Mexico City operates in Central Time, enabling real-time collaboration and same-day workflows with U.S. and Canadian teams across most of North America.
In the United States, Central Time covers major economic regions across the Midwest, South, and Texas, including cities such as Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis, and St. Louis. In Canada, Central Time applies to Manitoba, most of Saskatchewan (which remains on CST year-round), parts of northwestern Ontario, and western regions of Nunavut. This overlap enables seamless coordination with cities like Winnipeg and Saskatoon.
This time zone compatibility reduces operational friction for customer support, shared services, finance, and technology teams. It enables faster decision-making, same-day execution, and continuous coordination across North America—key advantages for companies serving U.S. and Canadian markets.
Quality of Life: Urban Complexity, Not a Defining Narrative
Like most very large global cities, Mexico City operates under urban constraints, including congestion, infrastructure pressure, and environmental challenges. One relevant structural factor is geography: the city’s high elevation and surrounding mountains contribute to limited air circulation, which can exacerbate air-quality conditions.
These factors should be understood as conditions to manage, rather than defining characteristics. In practice, Mexico City’s economic scale, institutional density, and labor market depth have allowed it to sustain population levels and business activity despite these pressures.
Conclusion
Mexico City does not compete on simplicity. It competes on function. Its scale, labor depth, institutional density, and infrastructure allow it to absorb sustained corporate demand across operations, shared services, finance, technology, and customer support.
For companies evaluating long-term operating locations, the relevant question is not whether friction exists, but whether the system can continue to operate, adapt, and grow despite it. In that context, Mexico City’s ability to sustain talent inflows, retain multinational employers, and support expanding operations positions it as a durable operations hub within North America.
